Before crossing the Atlantic, I studied Biology and Ecology at the École normale supérieure in Paris. There, I picked a keen interest in biodiversity and ecosystem processes, in particular as they concern vegetation and soils, or are affected by human land use (e.g. agricultural practices). The human, and specifically economic, component of those issues is of particular interest to me. My doctoral journey seeks to get at that interplay, for instance by assessing the local environmental and economic consequences of conservation programs (in Ecuador), by quantifying the effect of weather shocks affecting agricultural regions on international migration (to Europe), or by examining the dynamics of agricultural landscape simplification (in the United States).